User blog:Matt Hadick/Hostages in Popular Media
Can you believe it, folks? The series premiere of the CBS thriller Hostages is only a month away and we couldn't be more excited. If you don't already know, Hostages centers on physician tasked with doing surgery on the President of the United States. The doctor, named Ellen Sanders (Toni Colette), is taken hostage, along with her family, by a rogue FBI agent named Duncan Carlisle, played by Dylan McDermott, who orders her to assassinate the president during surgery -- or else. Fictional hostage situations have a long and storied legacy in Hollywood. To hype ourselves up for the show's premiere, we thought we'd showcase a few of our favorite hostage-oriented films. If we missed any of your favorites, let us know in the comments! Speed A definitively '90s action flick starring Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, and Dennis Hopper, Speed is a high-octane twist on the hostage trope. Dennis Hoppers character has rigged a device that will make the bomb detonate if the bus goes any slower than 60 miles per hour (hence "Speed") and spends the entirety of the film mocking Keanu Reeves from a remote location while Sandra Bullock drives the bus (and screams, constantly.) Airheads A comedic take on the hostage formula, Airheads finds a trio of musicians (Brenden Fraser, Steve Buscemi, and Adam Sandler) taking a radio station hostage (with plastic guns) after the station DJ's refuse to play their demo tape. Die Hard Yippee ki-yay. A classic hostage action romp, Bruce Willis stars as John McClane, an NYPC officer who's wife is taken hostage during a Christmas Party at LA's Nakatomi Plaza. The film finds McClane ascending the buildings forty stories, kicking ass and taking names along the way. Taken Liam Nissan stars as an ex-CIA agent turned bodyguard who travels across Europe to save his daughter, who's been kidnapped to be sold at auction in a sex slavery ring. While he's at it, he murders dozens of thugs in outrageously violent ways. Dog Day Afternoon Based on a true story, Al Pacino and John Cazele star in this Oscar-winning film about a man who robs a bank to help pay for his lover's sex-change operation. Things escalate into a a hostage situation (and a media circus) very quickly. The Dark Knight Heath Ledger's Joker seems to have a thing for taking hostages and in the film's nail-biting climax, he takes a pair of ferry's hostage, one full of citizens and one full of prison inmates and guards. He tells the passengers of each ferry that they choose to blow up the other before midnight -- otherwise, both will explode. Argo Last year's Best Picture Oscar-winner, Argo follows a CIA agent (played by Ben Affleck, who also directed) attempting to rescue six American hostages in Tehran, Iran, using the pretense that he's a Hollywood producer scouting locations for a science fiction movie. Air Force One After hijackers seize Air Force One, taking the president's family hostage, the president (played by a stone-faced Harrison Ford), an ex-soldier, does whatever it takes to save his family from the terrorists' clutches. Category:Blog posts